In a year exploding with online visual content, RFE/RL, founded as a radio broadcaster, has recorded 2.6 billion combined video views on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram in 2018--an 85 percent increase over 2017.

VISUAL REPORTS

Thousands of Hungarians have taken to the streets for several nights in a row, accusing the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of attacking the judiciary and passing what's being called a "slave law" that lets employers request up to 400 hours of overtime annually, without payment for up to three years.

Two Georgian pensioners, aged 91 and 83, have undergone a modern makeover. It's part of a campaign by Georgian fashion designer Megi Gabunia to encourage individuals and businesses to do more to enrich the lives of the country's most senior citizens.

OTHER NEWS

The White House has extended financial and travel restrictions on government-linked people from Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere, under a U.S. law aimed at human rights abusers and corrupt officials worldwide. The December 19 order prolongs sanctions levied last year against the eldest daughter of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov; the son of Russian Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika; and a Ukrainian riot police commander, among others.

The media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says 2018 was a year of “unprecedented” hostility toward journalists around the world, documenting 80 journalists killed worldwide “in connection with their work.”

Stepan Bandera, the controversial leader of a militant wing of the Ukrainian independence movement and accused of war crimes during WWII, was banned in Russia and killed by the KGB in Munich in 1959. Far-right Ukrainian nationalist groups have resurrected his identity in Connection with Russia's aggression in Ukraine in 2014. Poland and Russia have criticized the decision, accusing Ukraine’s leaders of glorifying him. Bandera was born on January 1, 1909. (in Russian, Current Time TV)

Roskomnadzor says it has sent legal warnings to Facebook and Twitter informing them they had 30 days to comply with laws requiring "localization" of data. The threat, issued on December 18, is the latest effort by Russian authorities to exert greater control over global Internet and social-media companies.

A Moscow court has ordered the blocking of Russian opposition politician and anticorruption campaigner Aleksei Navalny's Smart Voting website. The Taganka district court ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, which claimed the site violates regulations on filing and processing of Internet users' personal data.

In its third and final vote, the State Duma approved legislation under which organizers of unsanctioned public gatherings in which people under the age of 18 participate will face up to 15 days in jail and a fine of up to 50,000 rubles ($750).

Russian lawmakers have asked for an explanation after the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published an interview on December 19 quoting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that Moscow could potentially hand over two islands in the disputed Southern Kuriles chain to Japan if Tokyo "recognizes the results" of World War II -- something he said Tokyo was "not ready for yet."

A new Russian law signed on December 18 bans boards showing currency exchange rates in public places, and instructs the Russian Central Bank to decide how banks and other financial institutions should inform clients.

Russia’s prosecutor-general’s office has disclosed that bribery and prosecution of bribery-related cases in Russia increased by almost 10 percent in 2018 over the previous year, with the average bribe amounting to just over $9,000 and the total amount of bribes uncovered reaching almost $27 million. The office attributes its success in prosecutions to the country’s robust anti-corruption agenda, strengthened legislation, and new authority to investigate former officials within six months of their dismissal. (in Russian, Current Time TV)

More Russians regret the breakup of the Soviet Union than at any other time since 2004, a Levada Center opinion poll shows. Sixty-six percent of respondents answered "yes" when asked whether they regret the 1991 Soviet collapse, up from 58 percent a year earlier. The Center said that Russians' concerns about their economic security were among the main reasons for the high numbers voicing regret.

The International Monetary Fund has approved a new $3.9 billion loan agreement for Ukraine, a small victory for President Petro Poroshenko ahead of the presidential election next year. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said the loan would strengthen Ukraine’s fiscal confidence in 2019, “the year of peak planned debt payments.”

A meeting between senior Kosovar and EU officials has ended in acrimony over tariffs imposed by Pristina on imports from Serbia, and the bloc's delay in granting the country's citizens the right to enter the EU without a visa.

A statistics agency under the office of the president of Tajikistan reports that 90% of Tajik women are afraid of their husbands, with 39% expressing constant fear. The women say they fear divorce and beatings most, with 30% of respondents claiming to have suffered physical and sexual abuse by their spouses. (In Russian, Tajik Service/Current Time TV)

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